seared tuna, vietnamese style

internet was down for a day and a half, so i had to fill my time packing and readying for our trip to europe later this week. but now the internet is back up, and our really easy summer super series can continue. 

take some tuna steaks, sustainably caught, cook up some three ladies brand vietnamese rice in the rice cooker or your favorite brand of fluffy long grain rice. make a bit of nuoc cham sauce (1/4 cup fish sauce, 2 garlic cloves minced. 1 shallot, minced, 3 TBSP minced cilantro stems, 1/3 cup lime juice, 2TBSP organic brown sugar). maybe some green beans cooked in salted water or stir fried vietnamese style with garlic, cilantro and fish sauce. cut the tuna into attractive hunks. sear in a copper or other skillet (things sear so beautifully in copper). when attractively, gorgeously browned, yet the interior still quite red, remove from skillet. allow to rest a minute. thinly slice the tuna. arrange on a platter, pour the nuoc cham over the fish. sprinkle on a generous supply of cilantro leaves and dig in. my kids never used to like tuna, but served this way they thought it was really tender pork at first. now they love it, and we never have any leftovers (to my great dismay). but every time we do eat pork they ask whether it is tuna. good to keep them guessing.